Either The Best or Worst Day Ever

I woke up extra early this morning because I couldn't sleep. I felt like a little kid on Christmas. Either I am going to get the best present a kid could ask for, a Packers Super Bowl trip, or Santa is going to come down the chimney and burn to death in my fireplace.

3 hours and 25 minutes until kickoff. My stress is off the charts. Thank (Sports Bottle's) god there is the Wisconsin v. Northwestern (Badgers by 6). basketball game on in about an hour to keep my mind mildly occupied. I can't watch any more previews.

GO PACK GO!

Packers-Bears From My Perspective

Sports Guy had a chat yesterday on ESPN.com and there were many questions surrounding the Packers-Bears rivalry. For the first time in I don't know how long, I had to quit reading something Bill Simmons wrote. He basically dismissed the Packer-Bear rivalry, saying it wasn't a rivalry because they haven't been good at the same time on a lot of occasions.

He, and anyone that doesn't live in Wisconsin or Illinois just doesn't understand how much this game means. Teams being good doesn't make something a "rivalry". Having games on ESPN six times a year doesn't make something a rivalry. History, familiarity, locale and hatred make a rivalry.

Would a non-rivalry game produce what is reported to be the "toughest ticket in Chicago sports history"? Would a non-rivalry produce some of the classic You Tube videos I've just shown? Would a non-rivalry make me physically ill about an upcoming game? Can a matchup that pits two franchises against each other more than any other two teams in NFL history, and two teams with the most championships and hall of famers not be called a rivalry? The answer to all of these is NO.

The four games on the schedule every year that matter most to Packer fans are the two where we play the Vikings and the Bears. Admittedly the Viking rivalry was taken to a new level in the past 20 years, but that doesn't mean the Bears rivalry went away. And I would argue that today, the roles have been reversed pretty significantly. Someone that hasn't had an entire life of dealing with FIBS and living in NFL North country cannot understand. Just like I don't consider any other rivalry above Packers-Bears, even though there may be bigger ones. So I would kindly ask Bill Simmons to concentrate on what he knows: Boston sports, the NBA and pop culture references, and keep the Packers and Bears out of his mouth. Because he just doesn't understand.

Packers-Bears YouTube Fun

Fools, Damn Fools, Rednecks and Predictions

I was going to take the day off today, but two things made me incredibly angry. One wasn't surprising, but it annoyed me and may make me change my political leaning. One is the dumbest thing I have ever heard. Also, I'm tired of analysis. I need it to be Sunday.

First, President Obama has decided that he hates Wisconsin enough that he doesn't need their votes in 2012. With the political climate like it is right now, I'm surprised that the President would say anything to upset anyone. He already has approximately 60% of Wisconsinites that hate him, and by vocally rooting for the Bears to beat the Packers, he just alienated the other 40%, including me. On one hand I applaud him for sticking with his roots and cheering on his team. On the other hand, fuck the Bears and anyone that roots for them. Palin in 2012!

Second, there is this. From Jim Souhan of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. I don't even know where to begin. I think I'm going to break this down Fire Joe Morgan-style. And I'm going to do it with little to no research other than my personal knowledge and a trip to Pro Football Reference (which I've heard is widely available on most internets), which HAS to be more than Mr. Souhan has, because there is no way he really believes what he wrote. (Actual text of article in italics. My responses in bold)

"If he wins his next two games, Packers coach Mike McCarthy will get to hold the Lombardi Trophy, that symbol of NFL excellence and homage to the presumed greatest coach of all time."

I would take out "presumed". They named the trophy after him.

"Which is funny, because if I had to win an NFL playoff game today, I'd rather have McCarthy on the sideline than ol' St. Vince."

I am going to guess you are going to explain why, and I'm also going to guess that you have never seen a Packer game in either era.

McCarthy will need to win about five Super Bowls before most Packers fans will elevate him to Lombardi's exalted status. I say he's already a better coach than Vinny, and any Packers fan who doesn't agree should get with the century and embrace modern developments. Such as electricity, and the forward pass.

Well, Lombardi won 5 championships in 7 years between 1961 and 1967, so I would go out on a limb and agree that McCarthy will need to win "about" 5 Super Bowls before I put McCarthy on the same level as Lombardi. Also, just because I don't have electricity doesn't mean I should agree with you.

Lombardi dominated 14- and 16-team leagues. To win his first four NFL titles, he had to win either one or two postseason games. Today, becoming the best of 16 teams and winning one or two postseason games would get you to the conference title game, a level reached by such legends as Jim Mora, Denny Green, Brad Childress and Steve Mariucci.

I guess McCarthy is better because there are more teams now. I suppose you could ignore the fact that they also played less games, and if you lost more than once, you didn't make the playoffs. I suppose you could ignore that a lower percentage of teams made the playoffs at all in the 1960's (4/16 vs. 12/32). Or that every team was more relatively stacked because there was less dilution of talent. Also, here are the coaches that are also apparently Lombardi-esque because they won at least two playoff games and got to the Super Bowl since the league had at least 31 teams: Brain Billick (2000), Mike Martz (2001), Jon Gruden (2002), Bill Callahan!!(2002), John Fox (2003), Lovie Smith (2006), Ken Wisenhunt (2008), Jim Caldwell (2009). So based on your argument so far, all of these coaches are better than Lombardi.

Lombardi took advantage of a league that viewed the forward pass as an occasionally necessary evil. The Packers who won the 1961 NFL title ranked ninth in the 14-team league with 168 passing yards per game.
If a McCarthy-coached team ever averaged 168 yards passing, he'd be Macalester's offensive coordinator the following year.
In today's NFL, the quarterback is the fulcrum of an elaborate and intricate mechanism featuring dozens of formations and hundreds of plays. In Lombardi's NFL, the quarterback was a UPS man, required to deliver a leather object from the center to the halfback.

So Lombardi was supposed to think ahead 50 years and run the spread offense. I suppose being 1st in the league in scoring in 1961 (and 1962) is meaningless. Clearly scoring 27.9 pts per game wasn't enough because passing is more fun to watch than gaining 8 yards on a sweep or something. For the record, McCarthy, clearly a superior coach and offensive mind, has led his team to 24.2 pts per game this year, 10th in the league. I bet if McCarthy averaged 168 yds passing per game, but his team led the league in scoring, he would not be Macalester's (whatever that is) Offensive Coodinator.

Lombardi dominated the NFL by demanding toughness from his players. That was easy when concussions were referred to as "seeing stars.''
In McCarthy's NFL, one more blow to Aaron Rodgers' head could end the season, and if he asked Rodgers to "gut it out,'' McCarthy would be subjected to public ridicule, if not legal action.
The NFL was so primitive during Lombardi's rise that he gained a marked advantage over the rest of the league by -- I'm not making this up -- making his players work out.
The level of physical fitness required by the average backup tackle in today's NFL made the Packers physically superior to the competition in the 1960s.

Games were also shown on black and white TV's, and many players from that era suffered and died from dementia. Also, clotheslining and body slamming opponents was encouraged and helmets were cheap and unsafe. How does this make McCarthy a better coach? Because he lost a game when Rodgers was forced out by injury? I'm sure nobody ever got injured when Lombardi coached, and players dragged broken legs around. And how does the fact that people were stupid and didn't exercise/work out/do steroids in 1960 make McCarthy better? Lombardi was a sort of pioneer in this "working out" thing. He gets dinged for gaining an advantage over other teams??? This makes no sense at all. In addition, the average backup tackle today is ten times more athletic than almost any player from the 1960's, and Jim Souhan.

Remember, Lombardi dominated a league that had yet to embrace the concept of the short pass. Lombardi became a coaching giant by emphasizing -- I'm not making this up -- the "sweep.''
Imagine if a current NFL coach tried to win with a playbook designed around the power sweep. Even Childress, who wanted to build his offense around power running when he took over the Vikings, eventually acknowledged that an intricate passing offense was necessary to win in today's NFL.

Again, I would point out that he scored more points using his "sweep" than McCarthy has using his "pass". The players today are bigger, faster and stronger on defense, which necessitates passing because running is extremely difficult. One could argue we aren't even discussing the same sport. If Lombardi was coaching today, do you think he would just sweep left and right all game if it wasn't working? Does Lombardi have to take his 1960's team and play it against the 2011 NFL? Because if that is true, then Mr. Souhan is probably right. I doubt Bart Starr could get dropped onto the field Sunday like it was 1961 and throw for 366 yards throwing to Max McGee.

In Lombardi's NFL, he could line up his assortment of indentured Hall of Famers and run over the opposition.
In an NFL filled with remarkably fast, powerful defenders, McCarthy has resorted to using three-back and five-receiver sets during the same drive.
Lombardi's team was never threatened by free agency or salary caps. McCarthy has been forced, because of free agency and injuries, to remake his team almost weekly. His best defender during the playoffs has been Tramon Williams, who was once released by Houston, and his best back has been James Starks, a rookie sixth-round draft pick.
Lombardi relied on one Hall of Fame quarterback, Bart Starr. McCarthy reinvigorated one Hall of Famer, Brett Favre, and may have created another in Rodgers.
Lombardi reaped the benefit of coaching on the Frozen Tundra, giving his players a dramatic home-field advantage. Today, Lambeau Field and its sidelines are heated, making Lambeau just another outdoor stadium to opponents.

Where to begin. Well first, your hall of famer argument just completely defeated your earlier argument about how much easier it was to win in a 16 team league. Doesn't it follow that if your team had a bunch of hall of famers, others did too? I know the Packers were the most talented team in the '60s, but I don't know too many that would not put today's Packers among the elite at least talent wise. How is McCarthy "better" in a "tougher era" when he had two hall of fame QBs versus one? And none of these other things is an argument that McCarthy is better than Lombardi, they are just arguments that the 1960's sucked compared to 2011.

Clearly, McCarthy is the better coach. But in the interest of even-handedness, we have to give Lombardi this: He was the better dresser.
McCarthy always looks like he just got done mowing the lawn. Lombardi dressed like a champ -- the champion of a small, backward, league.

No, McCarthy is not clearly a better coach. Lombardi did dress like a pimp.

I didn't see anything in this article about clock management or the use of challenges. But McCarthy is obviously better at the challenges than Lombardi could ever be because they didn't exist when dinosaurs roamed the earth in 1961.

This is the worst article ever written. Not only was it pointless, but it was poorly researched and incorrect. This guy got PAID to write this. It is incomprehensible.

ONE LAST THING

I heard Jared Allen, who is by all accounts a genius, pick the Bears because "their defense has been so good all year". The Packers ranked 2nd in points allowed and 4th in yards allowed vs. The Bears 4th in points allowed and 9th in yards. Also, The Packers were 10th in points scored and 9th in yards while the Bears were 21st in points scored and 30th in yards. So, um, yeah, not only is the Packers defense statistically better, but they did it against a tougher schedule, and are playing against a far worse offense than the Bears defense is this week.

ONE LAST, LAST THING

You know what? I'm tired of experts predicting this game. I'm not saying the Bears can't possibly win, because they can. I'm just saying if the Packers and Bears both play a typical football game, and neither side completely melts down, the Packers should win this game. They are better on offense AND defense. The only way I see the Bears winning is: an injury to Rodgers, or a return TD from Hester (not out of the question). I'll say 24-17 Pack.

Here. We. Go.

This post is going to come with a disclaimer. I may well be repeating a number of things said by our lovely guest Mr. Gonzalez. I admit that I did not yet have 73 minutes (approx.) to read the 7500 words (again, approximate) he wrote. However, if it is anything like his first guest appearance, it is much, much better than what I'm about to write, and you should probably just skip mine altogether and read his. Also, it is a goddamn crime that he does not yet have access to write on this blog at will because Bear is a lazy piece of shit. There, I said it.

ANYWAYS (h/t Chuck Klosterman), the Packers played in a football game on Saturday night. I watched it while inhaling approximately 7,300 calories and having 8 or 9 drinks. Also, a shitload of Packer fans watched it from the Georgia Dome. I know this because by the middle of the third quarter, the Pack was up by three touchdowns, and all the Atlanta fans had left. (As an aside, and not really the point of this post, Falcons "fans" are a fucking joke. C'mon. I fully realize you were getting your ass kicked. But you probably paid a lot of money for those tickets, and all week, you paid ESPN to hype how "loud" the Georgia Dome is and how Rodgers and company would crumble before your bullshit "115 decibels". And you could barely find the time in your busy schedules to make it through 3/4 of the game. And there is the difference between you as a fan base and the Packer fan base. At least we would've stayed in our seats and hurled obscenities on our team. You should be ashamed). OK, that was a large aside, but there was a football game nonetheless. In this game, when the Packers had the ball, the Falcons had 11 men playing hard on one side of the ball, and the Packers had 10 men, and 1 motherfucking GOD.

That was, without a doubt, with all recentness and homerism biases aside, the best performance I've ever seen by a quarterback. A-Rodg could not miss a receiver, for the most part he could not be sacked. If Atlanta blized, Rodgers made them pay. If the Falcons played coverage, A-Rodg made them pay. It was absurd. We as Packer fans are lucky that we can call him Ours.

And now he needs to do it again. Now is when the shit gets serious, and it is for real. On the road. Against our biggest historic (and probably now, current) rival. With a trip to the Super Bowl on the line. Great quarterbacks win games like the one coming up. I don't think there is any doubt that he is a great quarterback. After watching that performance on Saturday, I believe.

OTHER TIDBITS NOT RELATED (DIRECTLY) TO AARON RODGERS' ENORMOUS COCK

-Cue the "experts" comparing Rodgers and Cutler. Seriously, I've already seen a few. Look, Cutler is an OK quarterback who occasionally has a flash of being really good. He also has the tendency to implode. He is the Chicago football version of Carlos Zambrano. Cutler is not even playing the same sport as Rodgers right now. Having a decent game against a below .500 Seattle team at home does not make Cutler Aaron Rodgers. So please. Stop.

-The Packers have been installed as 3 point road favorites. I will lay the 3.

-I am already freaking out about this game on Sunday. I'm thankful it is the early game, because my head would explode if I had to sit through the AFC Championship thinking about the Packers. Stress level is a solid 8.5/10.

-Tedy Bruschi is trying to think of a way to base his game prediction on the 1941 playoff game between the teams. I mean, he picked the Giants to beat the Packers because they won the game after the first "Miracle at the Meadowlands". So why not base the NFC Championship on a game played by Sid Luckman and Don Hutson.

-Fuck Bears fans already. They are idiotic for wanting any part of us.

-Cue the articles that discuss how the Packers win in Week 17 was "meaningless" for the Bears and that is the only reason the Packers won. Bullshit. Why have Jay "Joe Montana" Cutler in in the 4th quarter of a meaningless game? It is impossible to play a football game and not give 100%. Because if you half ass it, you get injured. And it would make no sense at all for the Bears to call "vanilla" plays, and risk injury to Cutler, Peppers, etc. Please stop this madness.

-Cue the articles pretending that the "weather" in Chicago is going to slow down the Pack. Last time I checked, we beat the Giants, Bears and Philly in freezing conditions (and other than the Chicago game, put up a lot of points doing it), before the big dome game against Atlanta. While I'm sure any team would prefer a dome or warm weather, we will be fine.

-Don't ignore the Packers defense. With the defense playing as well as it has, we can afford to make mistakes, or have a below average game on offense, and still win.

New Year Things

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Full Blown

So either I caught full blown AIDS at the Packer game this weekend, or I just got a really bad cold, and I'm too damn old to drink as much as I did. Either way, I feel a little under the weather on Wednesday night. On the bright side, I'm sitting back watching Creighton take on Illinois St. on ESPN3 in all of its non-HD glory.

FUCK THE VIQUEENS

You are a useless franchise. Truly. I need you to beat the Giants. The roof caves in on your shitty "stadium" and you get killed. I need you to beat the Bears. The roof continues to cave in, 13,000 fans show up (clearly an outdoor stadium is wanted) and you get killed. I need you to LOSE to the Eagles, and you win. I fucking hate you. Now if the Pack is able to replicate what happened last weekend, we get the honor of facing the Philidelphia Eagles and thier dog murdering QB.

RIVALRY GAME

Is the Packers-Bears rivalry as good right now as it has been historically? Probably not. But could it get there? I think Sunday is going to go a long way towards finding that out. How much do the Bears hate the Packers? Will Lovie play his most valuable players in a game that is probably pointless to them (unless somehow Atlanta loses vs Carolina AND the Saints lose vs the Bucs) just to try to keep the Pack out? Personally, I think this is a game the Pack wins regardless unless Hurricane Ditka shows up. Even if Lovie plays everyone, you gotta think they are going to be looking forward to thier week off in Cabo, and to not hurting themselves. I'm a little worried that we will have a special teams meltdown, since it will be 14 days since the last time Shawn Slocum's crew lost a game for us ( a season long!!), but otherwise, the Packers have played extremely well the last two weeks.

"PRO" BOWL

It is pretty hard to get too worked up about this sham of a game, especially since the guys I'm about to bitch about not getting selected, or getting selected will inevitably back out anyway leaving A.J. Hawk as the starting MLB for the NFC, and Jarret Bush as a starting safety.

Tramon Williams is a Pro Bowler. D'Angelo Hall had like 5 of his 6 INTs in ONE GAME against Jay Cutler, and played on one of the worst defenses in the NFL. He is not a Pro Bowler. Woodson might be, even in a down year, because he is awesome in many aspects of defense (tackling, blitzing). However, he is not as good as Williams right now. Or at least he isn't better.

I don't know how you name a left tackle for Pro Bowl, but Clifton has gotten beaten like a drum on a lot of occasions this year. He's had a great career, so if this is a career achievement award, then fine, but he is not all-star caliber.

In conclusion, I would like to make to final points:

1) I made the above conclusions based on watching 15 Packer games and parts of whatever was shown on my television.

2) None of the Packers will be playing in the Pro Bowl because of the Super Bowl the next week...

HOLIDAYS

For the fourth straight year, I would like to continue my crusade to give every American the day off of work when there is a sporting event not normally played during a weekday, played on a weekday. Like today. I missed the Armed Forces, or Bell Helicopter or Turdburgler.com Bowl today while I worked. Bullshit. C'mon Tea Party. Do something for fucking me!

RELAX.

Yesterday about 5 p.m., you would have thought that Ted Thompson took a dump on Curly Lambeau's statue, and wiped his ass with the American flag.

Free agency had started. The Packers had not held a gun to Chad Clifton's head and demand that he sign whatever they offered him therefore giving up the chance to check to see if he could cash in one last time. Clearly, Thompson did not utilize the Jack Bauer strategy of kidnapping Clifton's family and threatening their lives if he did not stay in Green Bay. It was obviously Thompson's fault for letting Clifton hit the open market, because the player has no choice in the matter.

Not only that but OMFG! The Bears paid an aging (pretty freakishly athletic, but still aging) 4-3 Defensive end, who doesn't like to work very hard, 6 years, 91.5 million with $42 mil guaranteed. Obviously, Thompson should have offered him $100 mil to play a position he had never played before! Either that or had him killed so that the Bears couldn't overpay him.

Then, Detroit went out and signed Kyle Vanden Bosch! And Nate Burleson!! They are going to win the Super Bowl!! And the Bears also signed a backup running back! GASP!

It was seriously panic on sports radio. Thompson had no plan, Chicago and Detroit were not going to lose a game except when they play each other. He Who Shall Not Be Named will be back, and the Vikings will be 12-4 (losing only to the Bears and Lions), the Pack was going to trot out Breno Giaciomini (sp) at left tackle, Rodgers was going to get injured in week one, and we traded away Brian Brohm and OMFG Matt Flynn is going to be our starter and we will go 0-16. This was all based on the fact that a 36 year old LT with bad hips and bad knees was going to visit Washington.

Oh, and overnight they signed Clifton to a 3 year, $20 mil deal. Seriously. Calm the fuck down. I would enjoy the Pack making a splash. But they will be fine. Ted has a plan, and he is working his plan. You (Packer fan) are not on the phone listening to what is going on. You can't just give the players everything they ask for without negotiating anything. If you did that, you would be the Washington Redskins. Or the Bears I guess. It will be fine. Have a can or 15 of Busch Light. Smoke some cigs. Eat some fried cheese. The Packers are still going to be fine. I will let you know when to panic.

The Bears Still Suck

I came to a pair of realizations last night while half watching/half being forced to watch Viqueens v. Bears last night. First, ESPN (most specifically Jon Gruden) has turned me off to watching televised football. They have finally done it after 16 weeks of trying SO hard to make me not want to watch Monday night football. Actually, I'm going to backtrack a bit and say that they made me want to stop listening to somebody describe what I'm watching. See, as it turns out, watching approximately 100 football games a year for the last 25 years or so has made me not a fucking idiot, and I generally don't need someone describing the pictures I am seeing (apologies to blind people). With about 10 minutes left in regulation, I told my wife (who for some reason was actively forcing me to watch the Viqueens (more in a minute)) that if she didn't turn the television on mute I was either going to smash the TV, or divorce her. Even though the second option was clearly a way out of a giant mistake, she chose to mute the television, allowing me to watch the remainder of the game, and decide for myself what was happening, and guess what they announcers were saying. If you have watched the Queens play at all this year, you can pretty much guess what they were saying, and it was "He Who Shall Not Be Named (insert ridiculous superlative)." The straws that broke the camel's back occurred during the Queens "miraculous comeback", which by the way, was against a terrible team that had clearly quit weeks ago, and I'm not actually sure it counts as a comeback since THEY FUCKING LOST, but I digress. During said failed comeback, He Who Shall Not Be Named threw a fairly routine crossing route to a wide open receiver that gained the Queens like 20 yards, and Gruden acted like He threw the pass left handed between his legs, and the pass literally went through a Bears defender forcing Greg Lewis to catch the ball covered in shards of bone and tissue. Later, on a third and long, the Bears dropped everyone 48 yards off the line of scrimmage, and He hit a wide open Chester Taylor who ran 20 yards untouched. On this pass, He actually died, and rose to right hand of (Sports Bottle's) god, was dead and buried for 7 days, arose, and completed that pass, because clearly, no other quarterback would ever think to throw to a wide open receiver that had nobody within 14 yards of him. On the drive where the Queens tied it, Gruden said the following things: (I'm not making (most of) these up). "Awesome." "I'm getting goosebumps." "I just climaxed" "Wow." "Jaws, pass me a Kleenex." Putting the game on mute lowered my blood pressure to a healthy level, and I was able to watch an American football game reach an exciting conclusion.

The second thing I realized last night is how much I hate He Who Shall Not Be Named as a human being and the Minnesota Vikings as an organization. I don't like rooting for the Bears under any circumstances. Last night however, I was Jim fucking Belushi. I felt like I was watching the Packers play the Queens. The circumstances have pushed the Queens so far above the Bears on the hatred level that I actually have a hard time watching any Viqueen game because I get so angry that He exists. And its not jealousy, or even being angry that he plays for the Queens anymore, because He's been dead to me since October. Its the CONSTANT fellatio, and his full name being mentioned every three seconds, and the camera that follows him around as he ignores his head coach the entire game. Watching the Queens have any success whatsoever just aggravates me so much. Watching His fucking shithead antics, and the fact that the games are forced down my throat every week, has made me actively avoid watching Viqueen games, even if it means not watching football at all. That is how bad it has gotten. My wife generally feels the same way, although she is transfixed on hoping something shitty happens and actively rooting for the opponent, therefore forcing me to watch against my will.

Now that I've found the mute button, perhaps my life has changed for the better, and I will not die of a heart attack.

Gloating, Even Though My Team Sucks

I don't subscribe to the theory that you shouldn't attack the plight of other teams. That you shouldn't take joy in the pain of other sports fans. So lets get right into today's topic:

THE BEARS STILL SUCK!
THE BEARS STILL SUCK!
THE BEARS STILL SUCK!

Man, that makes me feel good. Because no matter how shitty the Packers are playing, one can always take joy in the fact that the Bears might be an even bigger disappointment. Which really is saying something.

Jay Cutler has been a disaster. After last night he now has SEVENTEEN interceptions, compared with only 14 TDs. I'm fairly certain the 17 leads the NFL. And it wasn't like three of those were just great plays by the defense, or they were tipped. Other than when Hester fell (and it was still a poor throw) four of those were just absolutely terrible throws. They were Derek Anderson/Jamarcus Russell-esque. Didn't the Bears give up TWO first round picks for him? I love the taste of FIB tears (which tastes like a cross between a cosmo and air pollution).

So other than motherfucking Alex Smith being shitty when I finally broke down and started Vernon Davis over Antonio Gates after being burned three weeks in a row by leaving Davis's 25 points on the bench, the game was great.

Also, I enjoyed the text match between my brother and I while watching the UFL game at halftime of the NFL game. The condensed version is: a) the UFL sucks; b) there were 100 people at the game; c) Brooks Bollinger wants to kill himself; d) the sideline reporter was somehow worse than any NFL sideline reporter on earth; e) Former Packer tackle Orrin Thompson and former NFL RB Michael Pittman were both prominently involved, and both should be starting for the Packers right now; f) we tripled the UFL ratings by watching for ten minutes last night.